New York Court of Appeals Backs Eminent Domain Use in Columbia Expansion

By

Clifford M. Marks

Jun 24, 2010 6:06 pm ET

The legal saga surrounding Columbia University’s expansion plans may at last be drawing to a close.

New York’s highest court voted today to allow the state to seize private property in a 17-acre zone designated for Columbia’s planned expansion. See here for the NYT article. Here for the ruling.

The state’s attempt to exercise its power of eminent domain had encountered stiff resistance from some property owners in the zone who refused to sell their property to the university and who sued to block the condemnation, the Times reports.

Last year, a lower court ruled that the area in question was not sufficiently blighted to justify an exercise of eminent domain by the state. Furthermore, the lower court ruled, the true beneficiary of the state’s proposed taking of property was not the supposedly blighted community, but the “private elite” Columbia University.

But today’s decision wiped out the earlier ruling. New York’s high court held that judges must give deference to the state in its judgment that the expansion area was blighted, reports the Times.

Norman Siegel, who represented the losing property owners, said that he and his clients were “extremely disappointed.” He said he was still reviewing the decision.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger hailed the decision as “an extremely important moment in the history of Columbia.”